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Iban Zubiaurre Urrutia (born January 22, 1983, Mendaro, Guipuzcoa, is a Basque footballer who currently playes for Athletic Club Bilbao. He achieved notoriety as a result of a lawsuit in which his former club Real Sociedad prevented him from playing for Athletic for 14 months, due to an alleged illegality in his transference between the two Basque clubs.Zubiaurre, who represented Real Sociedad at youth level, was 'presented' as new Athletic Bilbao player in 2005 by former club president Fernando Lamikiz, despite still being under contract at Real Sociedad. Zubiaurre had no permission to rescind his contract, which had a year left to run and a buy-out clause of €33 million. Real Sociedad insisted that Athletic pay the entire amount, and during the subsequent legal battle Zubiaurre was not entitled to play professional football. SCD Durango, a regional Spanish club, asked permission to field the player, but were denied.15 months after the lawsuit began, a judge ruled that Athletic had to pay Real Sociedad €5 million, and were granted permission to field Zubiaurre for the 2006-07 season. He was presented for a second time at San Mamés stadium on November 16 2006, and was given the number 12 shirt.On February 11, 2007 he played his first La Liga match for Athletic Club Bilbao against Atlético Madrid. That was to be his only game of the season, in which his team avoided relegation on the very last matchday.[1] >> By WikiPedia
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